1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a data processing system with a user interface, in particular, with a graphical user interface (GUI) and a remote control device (RC) within a living room or a consumer electronics (CE) environment. The system enables a consumer to navigate among user-interactive items (such as, commands or hyperlinks) and select a specific one with a highlight on a television display monitor (TV) as part of the GUI.
2. Description of the Related Art
Interactive television (ITV) enables two-way communication using a television display monitor as a GUI. ITV typically relates to entertainment, information retrieval, and electronic shopping. An example of an ITV is a Web-TV interactive set-top box (STB). In a living room environment with an interactive television (ITV), it is not easy for a user to navigate between user-selectable options in a GUI menu. This is, in part, due to the vast amount of data and the large number of user-selectable options that are offered to a user in the GUI menu. A computer mouse, as an input device, is typically not useful for navigation in the living room environment.
For example, in case of a Web-TV STB, the RC has four directional navigation keys for navigation (up, down, left, right), and an OK-button for selection. The option that is currently selectable is shown highlighted. The user can move the highlight to another selectable option by using the navigation keys. This can be a long and tedious process when many available options are scattered over the display screen, as they are likely to distract and irritate the user. Moreover, it takes a substantial amount of time and many navigation clicks for the user to get an option highlighted that is located at the other end of the screen when many options are displayed in between.
The problem is becoming more apparent with the introduction of more CE devices that enable user interaction with an increased number of selectable options. Since the user typically has a preference for a minimum number of navigation clicks (i.e., the lower the number of menu levels to go through, the better), this problem becomes even more apparent. Moreover, the user expects to be able to control the interactive environment at any time, e.g., when sitting in a relaxed position on a couch in front of the TV monitor.